


Shadows and Moonlight

by lovecook



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Connecting, Dreams, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Heartless (Kingdom Hearts) - Freeform, Heartless Attack, Hurt/Comfort, Injury, Love, M/M, Major Character Injury, Riku Loves Sora (Kingdom Hearts), Sora Loves Riku
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-30
Updated: 2019-03-30
Packaged: 2019-12-26 23:43:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,019
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18292556
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lovecook/pseuds/lovecook
Summary: Riku and Mickey were attacked while in the Dark World by Heartless, and Riku takes a really hard hit. He struggles to recover as Mickey tries to hold off the heartless, but the blow was rough and the weight of his past threatens to keep him down, but a old friend shows up to lend a hand.May have mild Kingdom Hearts III spoilers!!





	Shadows and Moonlight

Was the world spinning, or was it just his head? Riku didn’t know anymore. His breath felt shallow and and ragged, the endless dark horizon fading in and out of his view. His ears were ringing slightly, and he could feel a hot, thick liquid dripping down towards his eye. The young man momentarily forgot what had happened to him, but the sharp pain on the right side of his temple brought him back to reality as the gritty sand stuck painfully to the wound on his head. The heartless in the dark world were strong, even for Riku and Mickey. They were ambushed. Riku and the King should have been ready, but the heartless were too fast; Riku vaguely remembered taking a hard hit to the head, but didn’t recall being on the ground. Had he passed out? It felt like he was hurting all over, but he had to pull himself together. He still had something he needed to do. 

They were still searching for someone, but they were deep, in very deep. They couldn’t find them, even though they were looking so hard. He had to find them, it was important.

Who was that someone?

Sora? No, no, he already brought him back from the darkness some time ago, that couldn’t be right. Sora was safe. Riku had guaranteed that himself.

“A… qua…,” he wheezed, his breath scattering the sand in front of him. Where was Mickey during all of this? Riku feared the worst. He needed to stand up. He needed his keyblade. 

His keyblade, where was it? He blinked very slowly, spotting the weapon barely out of reach of his hand. However, when he attempted to move, his body didn’t respond. Riku could merely stare angrily at his keyblade, trying to will his limbs to do something, anything, but to no avail. It had been a long time since Riku had felt this helpless, and his blood began to run cold. What if this was as far as he and Mickey were supposed to go? Was Aqua doomed to wander the Dark World forever, all alone? Out of everyone, Riku was the one that understood that understood that suffocating, oppressive isolation the most. 

Some keyblade master he turned out to be; One of his first tasks he got assigned, and it was already a failure. He couldn’t stop the frustrated tears forming as he squeezed his eyes shut, yet, this all felt oddly fitting for Riku. 

He had been the one to give in to the darkness, and he was the one that betrayed Sora and Kairi first. 

However, opening his eyes again, he saw not the Dark World’s ominous moonlit shores, but a bright, crystalline sea- a sight incredibly blinding after searching so long in the darkness. The sudden change in scenery was jarring, and it took some time to get used to the light, but his ears knew where he was; the quiet sound of the ocean rising to meet the golden shores, the distant ruffling of leaves behind him, and mischievous laughter mixed with the childish clacking of wooden weapons. 

Riku couldn’t believe his eyes when he could finally see. He was at Destiny Islands, but how?

“You know, sometimes you’re as lazy as I am.”

The silver-haired young man’s eyes widened slightly, and he moved his gaze carefully over to the owner of the mystery voice. Although, if Riku was being honest with himself, the voice was no mystery, nor was the back of the young man that spoke. He was sitting close to Riku, watching the waves overlap and overtake each other to see who could get to the shore first. The spiky-haired person kept going before Riku had a chance to force himself to reply.

“But if I’m being honest, that’s pretty rare. I don’t think I know anyone else that works as hard as you do.” Riku could hear the slight grin in his words, but the tone was soft. “You were always really good at everything you tried, but that wasn’t just because you were talented, it was because you did your best and didn’t give up, every single time.” 

The young man finally turned his head, the blue in his eyes as bright as the sky above them, with a soft smile that Riku had missed terribly during his time in the Dark World.

“You didn’t let me fall to darkness, Riku,” Sora added quietly, “That couldn’t have been easy. I know that nothing has been easy for you. You fight harder than all of us, you’ve given up so much, but I don’t think you know how much you’ve gained back.” Sora averted his eyes slightly, thinking about what he was going to say next, then looked back to his dearly beloved. “We’ve all forgiven you. I’ve forgiven you. But I won’t forgive you if you give up here.”

Sora held out his hand to Riku, just out of his reach.

“Bring Aqua back, okay?”

Riku stared at Sora for a few moments before biting his lip. He wanted that; he wanted to come back with Aqua, to see Sora’s face again; He wanted to do something right for a change. Then, when all was said in done, envelope Sora in the biggest hug and then tell him, “I’m home.”

Riku’s finger twitched slightly, his body finally starting to respond, and weakly reached out to grasp Sora’s hand. He missed him. He missed him so much. He thought he saw Sora say one more thing, and he could have sworn he saw a small tear in his eye, but the sight of Sora was ripped away as soon as Riku took his hand. 

He felt not the warmth of Sora, but the cold sting of metal. Riku blinked, realizing the scenery of home had been erased, replaced by the Dark World in another abrupt and harsh dose of reality. But Riku was holding his keyblade. The ringing in his ears had subsided, and he could finally hear Mickey’s voice calling out his name in a desperate attempt to try and wake Riku up while keeping the threat of the demon tower at bay all on his own. The sound of the shadows all squirming and clawing at each other to stay clumped together in one enormous, nasty tower as they dove at Mickey made Riku wonder why he was even still on the ground. 

He wasn’t going to let the King, or Sora, wait any longer. Not a single second more. Whatever it was that Riku had seen- a dream, a hallucination, or some other trick of the mind -it had given him the push that he needed. 

_You can’t do it._

Riku’s grip tightened on his keyblade, managing to lift himself off the sand and onto his knees. He stuck the keyblade into the sand, unable to get up without a little bit of help, and used it as a stabilizer as Riku pulled himself to his feet. 

_She’s already gone._

His muscles creaked and groaned with each small movement, the vision in his right eye was blurred thanks to the blood from his head injury, and every part of his body was throbbing and trying to tell him that it didn’t want to do any more than this.

_You’re going to die here anyway._

His body was spent, it couldn’t move, it couldn’t do anything else. It was done.

**“Come back to me.”**

Riku rose up against the incredible threat, a broken warrior who’s mettle was reforged and renewed, coming out stronger than he was merely a few moments ago. Sora’s parting words were reverberating in his mind like a desperate prayer, asking someone, anyone, to keep Riku safe for one more minute, one more day, one more year- just for a while longer, until they could see each other again. After hearing something like that from Sora, Riku wasn’t going to let himself die that easily. 

No way. 

The doubts gnawed ever away at the back of his mind, yet he stood firmly on his feet. 

His sins tried to drag him back down, but he faced forward.

Riku’s body was weary and battered, yet his spirit was on fire.

_I will not give in. I am stronger than this._

His keyblade rose with him. He hit his unsteady thighs with a fist to give them a jump start, his jade-green eyes gleaming despite his ragged appearance, and faced the demon tower, which only grew in size and threat with each shadow that crawled in to join their ranks. Their dark shadows nearly blocked out the light of the moon, and they towered over Riku as if they were about to devour him and the King.

Riku, his chest heaving, out of breath from just standing, pointed his keyblade at the demon tower infestation. 

“I will not let it end here.” 

\----------------------------------------------------------

“-ra. Sora!!”

“Whoa!!” Sora jolted awake, flailing his arms as he lost his balance and fell backwards, smacking his head on the tree trunk he had been napping against. Ouch, that had really hurt.

Donald had his arms crossed and was tapping his foot, obviously displeased that he found Sora napping when they were on an ingredient hunt for Little Chef, and Goofy was fighting back a chuckle with his hands over his mouth.

“Come on Sora, we’re supposed to looking for ingredients,” the mage lectured, grouchy as always, “We promised we would make sure and get enough for when they throw the party tonight!!”

“Come on Donald,” Sora couldn’t help but whine, rubbing the back of his head with a wince. “I was just taking a quick nap, I have a whole bunch of different things in my bag already.”

“I threw some of them away, a lot of those mushrooms were poisonous.”

“What?! No they weren’t!!”

“Uh-huh, they were too!”

“Hey guys, maybe we should hurry and find some more?,” Goofy interjected with a grin before Sora and Donald got too heated, “There’s no too much time left, ya’ know?”

Sora groaned, “What’s this party for again?”

“To celebrate the bistro getting five stars, remember??,” Donald huffed, rolling his eyes as Sora shot a small glare back at him.

“Ohhhhh, okay. I remember now.” The young man then yawned, standing up and giving his arms a good stretch, feeling both refreshed and oddly melancholy.

“Gawrsh Sora, it seemed like you were sleepin’ pretty good there,” Goofy mused, tapping his cheek. “Didya have a good dream?”

Sora thought hard for a minute, crossing his arms and tilting his head slightly as his eyebrows furrowed. 

“Weeeeell…,” he frowned as he tilted his head to the opposite side, “It’s pretty hazy, and I think Riku was there… maybe...”

“Oh yeah?” Oh, now Donald was intrigued. “Was Kairi there too?”

“Mm-mm, I don’t think so.”

“Ya have been pretty worried about him since he’s been goin’ into the Dark World a lot lately,” Goofy pointed out. Man, he was always sharp when it came to stuff like that, it always threw Sora off guard and he couldn’t help but give an embarrassed chuckle.

“W-Well, don’t tell him that.” Sora paused for a second, before giving a soft smile to his two good friends. “Even if I am worried, this time, I get the feeling he’s going to be okay.”

Donald and Goofy exchanged looks, then both looked back to Sora and nodded in unison.

“Yep! Riku always manages to make it through okay!” Goofy smiled cheerfully.

“Yeah, you don’t have to worry too hard about him, you’ll see him soon!,” Donald nodded again, confident in Riku and his abilities. However, his tone changed again as he changed the subject. “Alright Sora, it’s getting late so you stick with me, I have to show you which mushrooms aren’t poisonous so you don’t poison everyone in Twilight Town.”

“They were _not_ poisonous!!”

As the two of them squabbled meaninglessly, a thought stayed in the back of Sora’s mind. It lingered there, something that he couldn’t quite put into words, but the feeling behind the missing words were there. 

_I hope Riku comes back safely._

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading!! I had fun writing this, especially since it was my first oneshot AND my first time writing something for Sora and Riku! I've always loved them, especially their relationship together, so this has been a really long time coming. I hope to write something in the future where Sora and Riku are happy together instead of being apart, because there's always something pulling them away from each other!


End file.
